This week’s chat is with one-third of the female Americana group called Red Molly (made up of Molly Venter, Laurie MacAllister and Abbie Gardner). You see, Gardner is out on a solo tour that will kick off in Portland at One Longfellow Square on Thursday, Sept. 5, and to that end, a phone interview was set up that found me calling her on her cellphone as she was stuck in traffic in Hartford, Connecticut — she was NOT driving at the time — while trying to make it to New Hampshire for a family reunion.

Q: I understand that you’re coming up to One Longfellow Square soon.
Gardner: I am, yeah, I love that place.

Q: Have you played there as a solo artist before?
Gardner: I have, yeah, last year and I was actually just there recently, either in early May or early June, I can’t remember exactly, with Ellis Paul and Seth Glier.

Q: Do you have a new album out that you’re supporting?
Gardner: No, I’m actually working on a new record now. I’m going to be trying out some songs for it but it’s not ready yet, I think I’m going to be recording this winter.

Q: When did your latest CD come out?
Gardner: It came out last January.

 

Q: How many solo albums do you have now?
Gardner: Umm, I have four basically, yeah.

 

Q: So with those you can probably put a set list together easily.
Gardner: Oh yeah, definitely. I have a lot of songs from those but also my work with Red Molly, songs I’ve written for that band that I’ve made solo arrangements for, also.

Q: Do you have any backing musicians with you when you come through or is it just yourself?
Gardner: I will have a bass player on this run, an upright bass player, Craig Akin is his name and he happens to be my husband, as well.

Q: Well, that makes it kind of handy.
Gardner: Yeah, exactly, but mostly I’ve been performing solo, just myself and the dobro.

Q: When considering performing solo or performing with Red Molly, do you prefer one over the other or is it just apples and oranges: they can’t be compared.

Gardner: Actually, it’s really nice to have the balance of both. I’ve been finding that, with Red Molly doing a limited tour schedule of about two months out of the year, I get to enjoy the collaboration of backing up the girls, having them backing up me for a fuller sound on my songs, and enjoying singing harmony. But when that starts to get old and wear on me, I go off and do solo gigs where I can go into a different song or play a song in a totally different tempo or change the key — you know, the adventurous side of me can come out on the solo gigs.

Q: And I guess the making of a set list is kind of moot, then. I mean, you’re by yourself and can go wherever the audience or your muse takes you.
Gardner: Yeah, it’s true, I tend to make them but not always follow them.

Q: Well, speaking of that trio which you are a part, is a new album in the plans with them, as well?
Gardner: Well, we just finished our touring for this year and we’re going to be writing a lot because we do want to make a new record but we only have a few songs that we would put on it, so far. We’ve decided that instead of planning the album and then finding the songs, we’re finding the songs first and then — whenever that process is done — we’ll make the record.

Q: Oh, cool. Have you ever done it this way before?
Gardner: No, definitely not, and I think that’s part of the freedom of not doing Red Moly full-time. We’re putting a little more space around it and kind of focusing more on the music. And writing together for the first time, too. We never had time for that before.

Q: It’ll be interesting to see what comes out of all this, you know?
Gardner: Yeah. Yeah, it’s really fun to focus on the creative aspect.

Q: We’ve established that you have performed at OLS before. How do you find the audiences there?
Gardner: Oh, really nice. They’re so close up and it’s an intimate space. It’s not like being on a tall stage where you can barely see the people, you can see their expressions and it’s really entertaining for me because they’re watching me but I’m watching them.

Q: And you can make eye contact with everybody there.
Gardner: Yeah, pretty much, but it’s also got really good sound, so it’s like the best of both worlds, in my opinion.

Q: Has Red Molly played there?
Gardner: We played there a long time ago, I can’t remember what year but it was pretty early on.

Q: What can people expect from your show there on Sept. 5?
Gardner: Well, they can expect a mix of old songs and new songs, Red Molly songs and ones from my solo CDs, and also some new songs that I’m working on. I need to try them out in a live setting and see how they go. And I’m going to be using the dobro for everything. I have two dobroes, actually, in different tunings, and it’s all just lap style slide guitar. I’ve phased out using a regular guitar so anybody who comes to the show hopefully they like slide guitar because they’ll get a lot of it!

Q: Is there anything you’d like to pass on to the folks reading this article?
Gardner: Well, there are a couple of videos out on YouTube if they want to get a feel for what the show will be like. There’s one called “Afraid of Love” where I’m just sitting on a red chair in a warehouse and that’s a live take. And there’s another one that came out more recently called “My Darkness,”that’s more of like an old-school video that tells a story, like a mini-movie, but again the recording is live, just me and the dobro, so they can hear what that would sound like, also. They can also go to my website (abbiegardner.com) for more information.

Lucky Clark has spent 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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